A hot-button issue in India, tiger conservation pits theneed to preserve wildlife against the development needs of acountry that witnessed the slowest economic growth in nine yearsin March and where hundreds of millions continue to live belowpoverty line.

India is home to more than half of the world's tigers, with1,706 living in the wild, compared to 100,000 at the turn of thelast century.

The emerging Asian power has witnessed an unprecedented hikein new coal mines and coal-run power plants in the past fiveyears, placing the lives of many endangered animals at risk, thereport released late on Wednesday said.

Calling the situation "stark", Greenpeace says coal mininghas already started affecting tigers in many areas such asChandrapur in the state of Maharashtra.

"But there are other locations where the problem is already,or will soon be, equally severe," Greenpeace campaigner AshishFernandes told Reuters.

Reeling from the two blackouts this week andan ongoing shortage of power, the Indian government is undergreat pressure to mine more coal to meet a soaring demand forenergy.

Frequent power outages are seen as a major constraint tofaster economic growth, putting pressure on the government topermit the development of coal mines.

India sits on the world's fifth-largest coal reserves, andproduces the most after China and the United States.

The report says if India continues its dependence on coal tomeet its energy needs, the destruction already seen in theseareas will multiply across much of central India, which has 80percent of the country's coal reserves and 35 per cent of itstigers.

Last month, in a move to protect the endangered cats, theSupreme Court in India ordered a ban on tourism in "core zones"of more than 40 of the country's tiger reserves.

The government has for decades been fighting a losing battleto conserve tiger numbers against poaching, which feeds alucrative cross-border trade in body parts, and the loss ofnatural habitat.